More Than Books Can Tell
by not without incident
Summary: Set during the Golden Age, sometimes Susan forgets what is really important. Beta-read.


**Beta'd by:** loopyloo2610

* * *

It is known that Queen Susan was a 'smart' girl, and had an abundant love for books and learning. Shortly after being crowned, Susan had a chance to explore Cair Paravel, and she had been pleased to learn that a library had been installed for her own personal use. There were books of all natures, from Narnian history and lore, to more technical books such as learning how to sail. These things she felt were far more interesting than anything she'd ever learned back at her school in Spare Oom. Often the eldest Pevensie girl could be seen with a book or two sitting on the porch that jutted out from her library, often with some sort of small snack prepared for her by one of the many kindly servants of the castle.

Even while relaxing in her soft reading chair, Susan never seemed to lose her composure. Queen Susan never slouched or dribbled crumbs onto her pages. She always set her book down carefully upon her lap, saving the place with a bookmark before diving into her plate of biscuits, small sandwiches, or cakes. She'd take a morsel, eat slowly while gazing out to sea, perhaps pondering over something just read in one of her books, then methodically and neatly, she would brush her hands clean on a serviette and return to reading. Things were calm and orderly, just the way Susan liked them.

Susan ventured into her library after a long day with Peter, Edmund, Lucy and some visiting Narnians, some had even come from as far as the Western Woods to pay their respects. Susan was eager to dive back into her books where everything made sense – a far cry from talking animals, though she was more comfortable with it than before, the idea still made her feel absurd. When she got to the library, she found the door slightly ajar. She had not left the door open when she left in the morning. Frowning, Susan hurried into the room and glanced around for any sign of disturbance.

"Hello?" she asked in a level voice.

There came no response and after waiting a few seconds, the raven-haired queen shrugged it off and walked to the round table at the centre of the room where she often left neat stacks of books that she intended to read later. But now, as she came closer she found that the books had been moved around, some even lay open.

'What? I couldn't have…' she thought to herself. Susan went about rearranging the books, huffing when she found one book laying pages down on the table.

Someone had definitely been through her books, that much was for sure. Now, it must be said that Susan did not mind the others coming in to read, for the books had been a gift to her, and she did not mind sharing, but when they gave no respect for her things, that's when Susan began to feel a bit of anger.

She picked up the book and ran a finger down the spine, handling it as one might do an injured animal. She began to inspect the pages; a couple of them were bent (probably from the book being flopped down with open pages) but it was a folded corner on one of the pages that caught her attention and ground everything to a halt.

The folded page marked the beginning of Chapter Seven: Wily Whittling, of a woodworking book. Susan could see that the pages were smudged slightly with what appeared to be lead fingerprints or was it—chocolate?

She could think of two people responsible for this – Edmund or Lucy. She figured Peter would have the decency not to muck up books with careless handling but the other two could still be a mite irresponsible despite their royal titles.

Just then, Susan heard some footsteps coming up the hallway outside the door. A few seconds later Edmund burst through, something under his arm and his dark hair peppered with what appeared to be sawdust.

"Edmund!" She hadn't meant for it to come out so loud, but being the first person spotted after her discovery, he was bound to get the brunt of her annoyance.

"Susan?" he seemed surprised to see her, and slightly guilty. He quickly hid whatever it was in his arms behind his back. "S-sorry. I didn't know you'd be in here." His eyes darted from her the table behind her to her angry face then down to the book in her hands. "Sorry," he said again, taking a half-step backwards.

"Oh no, it's quite all right, Edmund," she said a tone more level than her thunderous greeting of before. "But I'd appreciate some notice before you tramp around my library, mucking up my books."  
"I'm sorry, Susan." Edmund seemed sincerely saddened, almost hurt. "I just needed to borrow a book."

"You could have asked," she said, "and next time, you mightn't leave so much evidence of your reading – there are plenty of bookmarks, Ed." Susan sighed and ran her thumb across the permanently creased corner of the woodworking book.

"I know," said Edmund, in one small attempt to defend himself, "I'm sorry. I was in a hurry."

Susan looked up at her brother, finally closing the book with a soft snap and holding it up. "Why did you need it so badly, and in such a hurry? I never took you to be a carpenter sort." She wouldn't admit it, but she felt a bit bad for coming on so harshly to Edmund who now looked quite uncomfortable.

"I can't say," was his reply.

"Why not?" Susan cocked her head to one side and studied her young brother. What could he be up to this time? He had always been slightly apart from the others, and though Narnia had brought them together, there were still moments when Edmund seemed very far away.

"I just can't say." He sounded most agitated now. "I'm sorry about the book, and I promise to treat it better, but if you don't mind, I'd still like to borrow it, just for a little while."

Susan pursed her lips as she thought of her response. In the end, she would let him borrow the book for a bit longer, but his lack of reasoning was so mysterious that she felt like she couldn't possibly hand the book over without learning a bit more.

"Why are you so filthy?" She stepped forward to brush a bit of the fine white dust from his hair.

"Oh, you know me," he said with a weak smile.

"And what's in your hand."

"Why must you always ask so many questions?"

"Why must you never give a straight answer?"

"Can I just have the book now?" Edmund shifted his weight from foot to foot.

All resolve broke within Susan and she gave the book over to her brother, watching with an amused smile as he scampered quickly from the room and the sound of his steps became fainter down the hall.

That evening at dinner Edmund seemed happier than during their meeting in the library, but he was quieter than usual. Susan made a passing comment about Edmund's new hobby and that he should perhaps pick up some work for the Beavers. This only gained a laugh from Lucy. Edmund and Peter exchanged knowing glances, but continued to eat in silence. Susan sighed and decided to give it a rest.

Susan wasn't generally one to nag for details, but she did like to know what was going on and there was definitely something going on and Peter seemed to be in one it too. It was nice to see the two brothers getting on so well, but if it was mischief she didn't really approve.

The next day, only she and Lucy came down to the table to eat breakfast.

"Where are our brothers? Do they intend to make us wait for them?" Susan slouched a little in her chair and stared quizzically at her sister who had her mouth covered and could hardly stop giggling.

"What is it?" asked Susan, and despite herself she suddenly felt like laughing too. Lucy had that way with people.

"Oh, Susan, you'll see soon enough," said the younger girl.

And so, she did.

A few minutes later, Edmund and Peter came into the breakfast room carrying something large between them, which was covered with a white cloth. As soon as they got to the table, Lucy who seemed unable to control herself anymore, burst up from her seat and cried, "Happy Birthday, Susan!"

The birthday girl gasped, and felt completely silly that she would have forgotten her birthday, but being away in Narnia and with all the new responsibilities, something as simple as a birthday had slipped completely from her mind.

"You didn't remember," said Peter.

"I can't believe I didn't," said Susan. She felt almost ashamed, but her siblings would not let her feel bad about it for long. "What is this?" she asked her brothers.

They'd set the covered item down on the table beside her still empty plate.

"Ed and I have been working on something - it was Ed's idea initially." Peter clapped his brother on the back and Edmund smiled with pride.

"Go on, open it," he said.

Susan reached out and pulled back the cloth. "Oh, Ed! It's gorgeous."

Sitting on the table before her was a wooden jewellery box, intricately carved with traditional Narnian patterns of various flowers and leaves. It had four little drawers on the front with tiny silver knobs to pull them out, and a lid that opened on the top and locked shut with the latch on front.

"Every queen should have one," said Edmund. "And I know you love your jewellery."

"Oh, Edmund!" Susan reached out and pulled her brother down for a tight hug. "Thank you so much. I'm so sorry for shouting at you in the library. I should have known you were only trying to do something good."

Peter laughed. "Yes, because why else would Edmund be reading?"

Edmund squirmed out of Susan's hug to get a swing in at Peter's arm, but the older boy easily dodged it.

"You two must have worked very hard on this," said Susan, running her fingers over the finely carved box.

"Oh yes, almost lost a few fingers too," joked Peter.

"I don't suppose you'll make me one of these, Ed?" piped up Lucy, who had been staring at the box quite covetously since its unveiling.

"We'll just have to see, Lucy. We'll just have to see."


End file.
